Houston: Martino takes tenth in qualifying

On the strength of a 6.950-second, 197.16 mph run made on Friday night, Tom
Martino qualified the CENTURY 21 Firebird 10th for Matco Tools
SuperNationals. Martino's first round opponent will be No. 7 qualifier Brad
Jeter, marking the...

On the strength of a 6.950-second, 197.16 mph run made on Friday night, Tom
Martino qualified the CENTURY 21 Firebird 10th for Matco Tools
SuperNationals. Martino's first round opponent will be No. 7 qualifier Brad
Jeter, marking the first time these two have met in competition. Although he
made four fairly consistent passes in qualifying, and his position is
Sunday's field was never seriously threatened, Martino remained unsatisfied
with one aspect of his car's performance, with both he and the crew working
hard to improve it.

"For the first time in a while, the chassis is responding to our changes.
Three of our qualifying passes were the nicest runs we've made with the
CENTURY 21 Firebird in the last six months. Unfortunately, lately we just
don't seem to have the power to take full advantage of what the car is doing,
and we're working to find a solution. We swapped motors after our first pass
this morning, but it didn't seem to make a difference, so we will go back to
the motor we had been running for tomorrow's first round. We'll also make
some changes to the tune-up trying to see if we can find some more
horsepower. If we can put it all together, we could do well. I know it
won't be for lack of trying."